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ISSUE 1 • JANUARY 2017

INDUSTRY EXPERTS IN COMPLIANT CDM AND ASBESTOS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS.

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editorswelcome

Simon Hanks Managing Director, Ai Solutions Ltd Nont, cone comnit consimpes es bonsilicam pontem halicon sularissus hocusulicaet fur ad clegil vem, noculi pro vastus.

Labemur. Milicia is cus publi, opoenihilici tum adhum Romnihi lnescie niumus etifentem fachuciemus acienatus, quostum quampons te, vehem pris; ina spientinam unculium firmius? Patus vivilis. Otiamernir ad retrae ad missimori cemus pon hos, nossediu sus consultus nontiam quamdiere cerfex mertis? Quast qua num quamquoncum te fur hocchicon temore in tum, queribus, nores optem elissicaes istilineri, ad nequamd itreme consum, coterunum diestium aceresc ermihiciam.

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ipte, vis, que consuntraet reo huius mus; etem omnequi isSe ingulvi gilistus nium et; nessidiusat. Fuitum venimis.

Maetellere orum hocret; in senaticio num desimortus, consulute ductoricatis pos corum tarterox noximum publiente et ina, sena, coentem terum rem, publiciam tero esin te mus menatrio ubliis, cavo, milicienatus inuncuteri fuem perem fina, uraequasdam hoca; henteri, te tat, nestodiu immolicae forta, opublium duc fena, C. Fit; ne conem parica morte in sena, nostarimus egitem te que ducomante ina, cota, perit; hostra noximius crem puleredio cressen arbis, vest pulinatque teres posulto ribefac ercervidero vehenihin dienduces Maecerf icultordi caedo, se nuncem ocum hil

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A Ai Solutions Ltd, Vimy Road, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1ER T 01525 850080 web www.aisolutions.co.uk AiSolutionsLtd

@AiSolutions

Ai-Solutions-Ltd

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CONSTRUCTION relies heavily on its workforce more than most other industries, it is a major sector of the UK economy generating around £90 billion annually. With the welcome increase of construction work that is presently happening workloads are rising faster than the worker pool. Agency Central states that a huge skill shortage could be on the horizon, with the current situation only looking to get worse through 2017.

As I see it we have three large resource-pools that we could tap into to help alleviate the skills shortage issue.

Firstly we have the youth of today, in our schools and colleges, eager to learn. However they are not provided with enough information to help guide them into construction

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related careers. Along with this there is the stigma of doing manual work and the image of ‘dirty’ work that is underpaid.

These matters need to be swiftly addressed and careers in the construction industry promoted.

This particular pool of people is key to lessen the impact of skills shortages.

Then we have women, can they help fill the gap? There is a long held taboo about women within the construction industry, they are not strong enough/are weak, they will get hurt, they don’t have the right skill sets etc.

Being a woman in this particular industry has made me acutely aware how difficult it is to start a career. Despite often having the right set of skills women are often side stepped as they are considered the main child

care resource within the family.

Having been asked at several interviews if I had children has always been an issue for me. Would men be asked the same question? We need to change perceptions, many large organisations are at fault here, only looking to ensure the post on offer is filled with the most cost effective solution (less days off due to children, pregnancy etc.).

Past evidence has shown that women can step up to the mark; for example during the first and second world wars women had to take on the roles that men has previously held. Much of this was heavy work like farming and industry, including munitions factories, which was highly dangerous work. Along with this, women have mastered

technology based roles and are renowned for their skill levels in technical and senior management roles. Plus, with health and safety improvements over the past few years, construction has become a safer career, fact!

The final resource-pool is that of the unemployed. We are constantly reminded of how many unemployed there are. Is there anything that could be done to offer, at least a percentage of those individuals, the chance to do an apprenticeship and the opportunity to have a well-paid job at the end of it? Some of this seems so logical, am I being too naive?

According to FM Forum construction contributes an estimated 6% of the economy, so seeing a longer term solution is becoming a growing concern that isn’t looking to stop in 2017, especially as the demand for experienced roles like planners, estimators and project managers becomes greater.

Many construction workers are retiring, and the rate of retirement looks set to increase as 22% of the workforce are over 50, and 15% are in their 60s. The industry is also losing out to competing sectors where work is more stable and pay is more competitive. With an ageing workforce and a poor pipeline of young people, it looks like the construction industry is certain to face a skills crisis in the next decade.

According to Agency Central the skills shortages are prevalent throughout the sector with blue collar workers hardest to find.

Additionally, as the Stastista graph below shows, Quantity Surveyors are the hardest to find.

These shortages will also mean increases in salaries as there are less qualified professionals about.

This has identified the problem as being double-edged in that both the professional and the more practical side of construction are suffering.

The industry has reached a turning point, so what should we do? If we cannot entice the younger generation to take on apprenticeships within the industry will we have to increase our reliance on foreign workers?

This has issues of its own regarding the language barrier and communication.

So, what is the solution? With investment in construction continuing its growth we need to look at our offerings for younger people, this includes women that have the skills set to undertake both the physical and technical sides of construction.

Apprenticeship programs that we put out there need to ensure that a place will be allocated on completion. Investment in on-the-job training to expand their knowledge and to ensure health and safety is paramount throughout the whole cycle.

Attracting new talent is key and, as we have considerable unemployment, should we not also target this area?

Let us remind ourselves about some ‘key’ aims of the, very successful, Construction (Design and Management) regulations (CDM2015). The government and large employers could learn a thing or two from these proven methods:CONSULTATION: Consult with likeminded professionals and the workforce to find out what is missing COOPERATION: Between government and large organisations, get buy in, sing from the same song sheet Communication: Open up the lines to speaking with each other, learn from this, improve things Coordination: Coordinate the courses, apprenticeships and other training to ensure the skill sets required are fit for purpose We will only be able to address the imbalance if employers and government work together and provide a strategy for skilling up within these resource pools. If they don’t then the shortage of skills within the construction industry will spiral causing crippling delays and spiralling costs for our construction projects.

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LATEST NEWS

CONSTRUCTION COMPANY FINED AFTER CONTRACTOR RECEIVES LIFE CHANGING INJURIES A Lincoln based Construction Company, specialising in fitting mezzanine floors were prosecuted after a contractor fell onto a concrete floor.

Guildford Crown Court heard that M & L Installers Ltd were contracted to install a mezzanine floor at a factory in Sunbury on Thames, Surrey.

The design included a hole in the mezzanine floor where a lift was due to be installed.

A contractor who was working on the floor fell just over 3.5 meters and suffered life threatening injuries, when he stepped backwards through the hole, on 13 January 2015. He was hospitalised for 2-months after receiving a server brain injury any has not been able to work since.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that the company failed to guard the hole for the lift or board it up preventing anyone from falling through.

M & L Installers Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of the Work at Height Regulations, Regulation 6(3) and were fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £9165.56 costs.

HSE Inspector, Amanda Huff, commented after the hearing “The contractors injuries were life changing and he could have easily have been killed.

This serious incident and devastation could have been avoided if basic safe guards had been put in place”.

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22 BISHOPSGATE LOWERED OVER CRANE CLASH FEAR WITH PLANES FRESH plans have been submitted to trim four floors from the 22 Bishopsgate tower under construction in London because of fears cranes will interfere with flights into city airport.

The AXA-led development consortium has chopped 22m from the originally consented scheme, cutting off the stepped apex to create a flattop skyscraper.

Planning documents lodged with the City of London reveal that there was concern about maximum crane heights impacting on aviation safety during construction.

Under the consented scheme cranes would have encroached into the 1,000 feet (305m) safeguarding limit for London City Airport.

The new scheme reduces the core height by 22m overcoming this issue during construction, but dropping the overall building height to 272m.

If approved the tower being built by Multiplex would now rise to 59 storeys rather than 63, although the overall area of the building will remain the same as the original plans.

Amended plans were submitted late last month as steelwork contractor Severfield confirmed it had secured the massive project, replacing earlier preferred contender William Hare.

The new designs will not impact the project’s delivery timetable, which will see the tower completed in 2019. The workforce will peak at around 1,400 in 2018.

22 BISHOPSGATE LOWERED OVER CRANE CLASH FEAR WITH PLANES

SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATING THE CDM2015 CHANGES With CDM2015 now fully in force, Ai Solutions are offering a briefing that highlights the main changes and effects of CDM 2015.

Our CDM 2015 training covers: - What is expected of each of the duty holders per role.

- Transitional Period Arrangements.

- Advice and guidance on how to navigate the changes successfully.

The briefing includes a question and answer section to test your knowledge at the end with a CDM2015 questionnaire.

For more information, call us now on 01525 850080 or read on about our ½ day Successfully Navigating the CDM2015 Changes course.

ANYONE who has had any contact with a BIM professional in recent weeks will have noticed a wild look about their eyes. This, and probably steam coming out of their ears, is down to the release of new drafts to two of the ‘pillars’ of BIM standards, which are currently out for review. It’s fair to say the BIM focussed corner of the Twittersphere aren’t overly impressed. PAS1192-2, focusing on the project team, and PAS1192-3 which addresses the client side of the level 2 BIM process are key documents in the delivery of BIM projects, from respective positions from either side of the contract line.

The 2013 versions of these publicly available specification (PAS) are widely heralded as landmark documents in putting the UK at the top table of global BIM. Even so, those who have studied them carefully through application and academic research have found areas that don’t quite align between the two, and their relationship with other standards also has some quirks that are difficult to reconcile in reality. Despite these problems, most of those in BIM roles have become conversant with these standards and spent so much time working with them since their publication that they

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are a lot like old friends now. We love them despite their quirks.

For those not aware of the difference in the British Standards Institute publication; PAS documents are fast-tracked and sponsored to fill a need in the industry. This doesn’t mean sloppy, but they don’t have the robustness expected of a formal British Standard, but to balance that they can offer more informal and informative advice and diagrams. PAS1192-2 remains the best place to start reading about Level 2 processes. The PAS approach has a maximum limit of refreshing the document every two years, which makes sure it continues to offer a highly relevant approach to serving the needs of the industry. With the appearance of the drafts coming a few days before Christmas in 2016, they were pretty late as gifts, as we should really have seen them over a year before.

It’s easy to be critical and not acknowledge how much effort is going into taking these landmark documents on the path to ISO. Great work is being done, but it hasn’t helped that the drafts appear to have regressed in some areas, nor that despite their lateness the pre-release checking process appears to have been rushed. When Prince

Charles attended the RIBA 150th anniversary bash to say ‘What is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend’, he was unabashed in his criticism of a proposed extension to the National Gallery in London. Many of those who have reviewed the drafts are feeling that same passion and mood and speaking out candidly about the failings of the drafts they are reading. Those working at the sharp end of BIM really do care deeply about this kind of thing.

What is important and so very valuable here is that there is a review process that dozens of informed industry leaders working hard within, to make sure the issues are caught and the quality improves. We live in hope that those responsible for the draft spend more time reviewing the comments delivered through the BSI website than they spent on spell checking.

The whole UK BIM standards journey is reminiscent of the evolution of the flat pack furniture. The idea was patented in 1878, and at the time it was known as ‘knock-down furniture’.

The concept really hit the UK with a bang in the late 80’s, and much like the BIM mandate

announcement in 2011, things changed. In those early years, the products had potential to be innovative and of good quality, yet the assembly instructions were the source of much frustration and plenty of ridicule.

With the best will in the world, we were left holding 13 spare dowels, finding screw holes with no screws left and yelling our most vicious insult combinations at random planks of chipboard that did not resemble the complex diagrams insisting part 15a should simply fit snugly into hole 72c. It was a great example of how developing technology, processes and guidance at the same time is incredibly difficult.

With early examples needing four people, enough space to swing a bison, a full joinery toolkit and the patience of the Dalai Lama to assemble a modest bookcase, we stood back to see the wobbly bookcase and those instructions mocked us viciously.

As the range of flat pack furniture grew, there was a period where the instructions just got worse, before they got better.

For flat pack furniture to evolve it needed the development of new tools, like those wonderful little cam lockbolts, for the processes to be vigorously tested by customers and fed back to the designers, and for

those crafting the instructions to really be embedded in the design process rather than trying desperately to document something that was designed by somebody else. The journey from ‘knocking-down’ existing furniture solutions, to designing furniture specifically with the DIYer experience in mind from the first pencil line has taken time and plenty of iteration. Kudos is due, flat pack furniture is no longer torture delivered by a tiny unusable bottle of wood glue and an assortment of non-standard hex keys. In an afternoon, we can assemble solid, attractive furniture which does exactly what the instructions say it should. And it works.

The BIM standards are currently in that awkward stage of being needed for some of the most complicated and ambitious construction project in modern history, when they simply haven’t had the time yet to incorporate market experiences and evolve to the point where they are fit for purpose. The UK BIM standards are rightly regarded as the best in the world, but they are not finished yet and even the 2017 drafts don’t change the reality of the situation that there are a number of years ahead of us where we will need to deploy plenty of pragmatism to their use

to make projects run smoothly and deliver the benefits of Level 2 BIM. The learnt wisdom will increase as we deliver more BIM projects and the standards will be able to absorb the lessons learnt and eventually become ready to be used by all projects without the need for special BIM process knowledge.

Compared to many other sectors, construction is late to the digital revolution party. Taking a step back though, we can learn from those other industries that have modernised and become slicker quicker than construction, and take encouragement from their results. In the meantime, just like a flat-pack versus a pile of timber and some old-school joinery, the alternative is to BIM is more expensive, takes more time and has inherent inefficiencies which most customers can’t afford to pay for; it’s unwise to dismiss using BIM processes on a project simply because the instruction manuals aren’t perfect yet. We stuck with that famous Swedish flat-pack company and watched them improve. Let’s do the same with BIM and support those who are working so hard to deliver the guidance required to digitise an industry as complex and fantastic as construction.

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A Ai Solutions Ltd, Vimy Road, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 1ER T 01525 850080 web www.aisolutions.co.uk AiSolutionsLtd

@AiSolutions

Ai-Solutions-Ltd